River Ranch Lettuce Recall of Salinas, CA Due to Contamination of Listeria Monocytogenes

River Ranch recalled bagged lettuce voluntarily due to contamination with Listeria Monocytogenes on Friday, May 18, 2012. They found the bagged lettuce to have the potential of being contaminated after a random routine of product tests conducted in the marketplace by the Food & Drug Administration.

After the random testing, Giant Eagle immediately removed affected product from store shelves, and is in the process of contacting customers who previously purchased the product with instructions on its disposal.

A spokeswoman for the health department said it was not immediately clear how large the lettuce recall would be. “We’re looking into that right now,” Heather Bourbeau said.

Listeria monocytogenes is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

The bagged lettuce recall was distributed nationwide to retail and foodservice outlets under various sizes and packaged under the brand names of River Ranch, Farm Stand, Hy-Vee, Marketside, Shurfresh, The Farmer’s Market, Cross Valley, Fresh n Easy, Promark, and Sysco.

The code date is typically located in the upper right hand corner of the bags. See attached list for the specific salad products, size, package type, UPC codes and states of distribution. No other products, brands or code dates aside from those listed below are affected by this recall.

River Ranch is working closely with the Food & Drug Administration and California Department of Public Health.

Consumers who have purchased this product should not consume it and are urged to return it to the place of purchase for a full refund. Anyone with questions can contact River Ranch at their 24-hour customer service center at 1-800-762-7708.